Posts Tagged ‘Gerze’


Cycle 10km like the wind. Reboot a server using the iPhone. Cycle 10km like the wind. Write a new website script and deploy. Making a buck on the road James Lambie style.

Black Sea road

Black Sea road

The road was flat, the sun was shining, and James Lambie was earning his living with his home office job. We had some kilometres to cover today, and our strategy was to divide it into 10km speed chunks. James is faster than me, so, he would power away into the distance, to be seen again at the next 10km stop.

I arrive bedraggled, having slogged through the sizable headwind.
‘Sugar level OK,’ (James is a diabetic), ‘Client website deployed.’ (James is a software engineer working from home office.) ‘Ice-cream eaten.’ (We usually stopped at service stations.)

Black Sea coast road

Black Sea coast road

I actually arrived before James at one 10km stop. I left before him.
‘There was a major emergency. The client’s server was down. I had to write a new script to process the online form, write some new tests, and deploy. I hope you haven’t been waiting long.’
I had been waiting for 2 minutes.

The last 20km into Samsun was turbo-powered. The wind died down, and we scooted along the main, flat, straight road into the 600,000 strong metropolis.

The Turkish cycling community is amazing, and so welcoming. We hadn’t planned anywhere to stay in Samsun, and our warm showers host from Iznik, Soner, wrote.
‘Where are you now? I have a friend in Samsun that would love to host you.’
We were honoured to meet some more amazing people. The president of the Samsun cycling organization – Yacin and his wife. They got married on a bicycle – it looked like an awesome wedding ceremony. His landlord and friend is an Australian Turk who lives in both Australia and Turkey. They all welcomed us with open arms. It was great to meet them!

Our lovely hosts in Samsun

Our lovely hosts in Samsun

Day 90. 0km. Gerze

Posted: April 24, 2015 in Cycling, Turkey
Tags: , ,

Make hay while the sun shines. Correction, rest day while the sun shines. Watching the waves lap on the shore on the Black Sea, unfortunate haircut in Sinop, and nice drink with a warm shower friend.

Resting on the Black Sea

Resting on the Black Sea

James was writing cute Chinese characters in the sun on our day off – part of a lovely birthday surprise tomorrow. 🙂

Chinese

Chinese

The highlight of the day was walking down the main street of Sinop with hair like this. I kept on reminding myself that I don’t know anyone here (except for James, and he won’t tell anyone).

Tomorrow back on the bike again – hopefully to Samsun.


Sitting in front of the class aided by the English teacher, James and I talked to the kids of the Boyabat school – and then had lots of selfies taken. A monster climb over the pass into the fog and snow before descending to the – BLACK SEA. Yay! No more mountains for a while! ☺

Selfie

Selfie

‘What do you need to get into University in Australia or New Zealand?’
‘What is the best way to learn English?’
James and I answered the teachers’ questions in front of the students before the big rush to take selfies and like James on Instagram (I should set up an Instagram account, I think..) ☺
On a more serious note, the teacher said the students have little chance to hear and speak to English native speakers. I hope our visit motivated them to explore the world out there, and to learn the language I am lucky enough to have as my mother tongue.

In front of the class

In front of the class

Then the monster climb from 300m to 1300m and over the other side to the Black Sea. The big headwind made it a slow affair. We stopped every 3km to eat, and had a lovely Çanakkale tea stop (Wow! An Australian and a New Zealanders – ANZAC – Çanakkale – very good – like – I have an ANZAC jumper) at the top of the pass.

Anzac jumper

Anzac jumper

They were lovely people working for the road network just before the new tunnel at the top of the pass. We were given copious quantities of tea and Turkish delight.

We popped out of the tunnel on the Black Sea side of the mountain and into dense fog, which remained with us almost until we hit the Black Sea many kilometres below.

Tunnel exit

Tunnel exit

Black Sea

Black Sea